Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I don't know how anything could be more political, more repugnant to our system of government than what has happened with Merrick Garland. The senior Senator from Iowa came here, and I waited for him--came to the floor to talk for a long time and in the process took credit for a bill that was Senator Shaheen's bill. It was her bill. He took it and put his name on it. That was interesting. In the same setting, he complained that I had objected to some bills advanced by Republican Senators. I have to say that the Senator from Iowa has a lot of nerve to complain about our side blocking legislation. The Republican Senate has written the book on obstruction, filibustering 644 times in the time I was leader. That is a lot. It is so far out of the norm that it is not worth trying to be able to state more than what I did yesterday. Lyndon Johnson was the majority leader for 6 years. There is some dispute over how many filibusters he had to overcome. We know it was one, and some say two. So two compared to 644 shows how outrageous is the conduct of the Republicans. The Senator from Iowa has written the book on obstruction of nominations. He singlehandedly blocked Judge Garland's nomination, and doing so is unprecedented. Never has a Judiciary Committee acted in this manner. To use Senator Grassley's own words, Senator Grassley's action is ``pure, unfiltered partisanship.…”